lite and heavy

Before leaving Jodhpur, I want to add a couple items: a fun event and a serious development:

Saturday afternoon and evening, Raju took us to a big department store. Mike wanted to buy some souvenirs and I tagged along. BW had told me not to buy any such this time. I ended up buying a few inexpensive items. But I kept with the spirit of her directive. At any rate, while Mike and Raju roamed the massive store, I wandered up front. I saw displays of various sweets and snacks. One curious item caught my eye. I asked the vendor what it was. What he said confused me. I couldn't tell if he said "Jolly Bee" or "Jellybean." The former is a chain of fastfood outlets in the Philippines while the latter as you know is a snack in the US and this was clearly neither of these. When Mike and Raju were finished, I brought them out front and asked again what is this. The man had in fact said, "Jolibee." Here is a video showing the man starting the process. He squirts a dough into a deepfryer. In the background of the video, you can see another man, also shown in the subsequent still photo.

The second man coats the pastry curls with honey or some kind of sweetener.

The final product looks a little like onion rings that got stuck together. But it is a sweet treat. Yes, we did try a few. Should have bought more because we really enjoyed them! :)

On a more serious note, I want to tell you about this man:

This gentleman was our taxi driver the entire time we were in Jodhpur. I have forgotten his name, but you can call him "Ali" because he is Muslim.

Raju chose him as our driver mostly because he does not understand English. That left us free in the taxi to talk about our plans and other Christian matters, without concern that he would report us to authorities and get us all in trouble.

So you might imagine my surprise when I saw him sitting at the back of the room during my Saturday morning, leadership message. At first I was not sure that I saw him clearly. Maybe it was someone else who just resembled Ali. He sat at the back of the room among a number of other people. He was far enough away, and I had not seen him clearly prior to that meeting. So I was not 100% sure it was our driver. And at that point, I did not know that he is Muslim. After the Saturday morning service, I mentioned him to Raju. Raju was interested to know that he attended and then he told me that Ali is Muslim. This piqued my curiosity even more.

Then Sunday morning, Ali drove us to the church service at the Mercy Home/Bible College building. Sure enough, during the singing Ali quietly walked in and sat down by the side wall beside some others who were seated there as well. He listened respectfully and seemed to be taking it all in. By now I was certain that this was Ali. When we came to the close of the service, we prepared to celebrate the Lord's Supper. So I reminded Raju to make it clear that this portion of the gathering was only for those who have asked Jesus to forgive their sins and have invited Jesus to live in their hearts. During prayer that began the Lord's Supper, Ali silently slipped out of the room.

Will you join me in praying for Ali? Pray that God will reveal himself to this earnest seeker. I am confident that God has already prepared his heart. Why else would he twice venture into Christian gatherings and sit through the entire message? God is calling Ali. Will you join in the battle for his soul?

This is Joseph and Sujana with their 3 children. They serve as "wardens" of the Mercy Home. Don't read too much into the title. It simply means that they oversee the care of the children in the Mercy Home.

They are gentle souls of Nepali background. I will tell their stories separately. But in a nutshell, they also need financial support: both for their family support as well as support for the Mercy Home.

This is the group who came to the Sunday morning service. Some are staff; some are students who graduated the previous day; and some are new believers.

They live in one of the 4 states in India where it is illegal to lead someone to conversion to Christ. Leading them to any other religion is permissible; but not to Christianity. So they very much need our prayer support as well as financial support.

Keep checking back. I spent all morning yesterday in the dentist's chair. So I'm home today and will probably post some more as the day goes on.

ttfn